DetN Lopez: WDAGD (What Did Al Gore Drive?)

by Robert Farago

Published: August 14th, 2008

Manny Lopez is The Detroit News ' head cheerleader. The Auto Editor hires the team, chooses the cheers and makes sure everyone stays on message. Manny's megaphone emits the same hoarse polemic the paper's been shouting since the 60's: "they" don't understand us. His latest: if the "Planet Protectors" (Nancy Pelosi, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Al Gore) watched the Woodward Dream Cruise they'd leave us the fuck alone [paraphrasing]. Manny's madder than that though. He launches a personal attack that posits what cars the terrible trio MAY have owned before their rise to power, to show their possible hypocrisy. Nancy's imaginary past puts her at the wheel of a "sun-drenched yellow Bug that was dressed up and clean." Arnie drove "a 1974 Cadillac Eldorado with a 500-cubic inch V-8 engine pulling 300-plus horsepower." And Al Gore piloted "a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda complete with a 426 Hemi engine." And then Manny plays CYA. "Perhaps they drove econoboxes and my guesses are all wrong, but I bet they have distinct memories of classic cars, nonetheless." I don't suppose the Auto Editor thought about actually establishing the facts of the matter, any more than Detroit considers the possibility that "outsiders" may have something valid to say about the industry.

Robert Farago

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Bozoer Rebbe on Aug 14, 2008
Interesting. And disheartening. I know people who have encountered Kennedy and former Senator Tsongas on commercial airlines (guess which state I live in). I don’t know why Pelosi’s people can’t answer a question like that. Am I cynical to believe that the reason is that the answer would be embarrassing to Pelosi? A Gulfstream IV has a pretty heavy carbon footprint. They did say that her book tour was not at taxpayers' expense, and it's SOP in the publishing biz for the publisher to underwrite book tours of celebrity authors, so I'm pretty sure Random House paid for transportation. It's possible that a publicist at Random House might have the info, but I doubt they'd share it with a random blogger.

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Psarhjinian on Aug 14, 2008
I don’t know why Pelosi’s people can’t answer a question like that. Because no one wants to be on the business end of a lawsuit or hearing if something goes wrong. It's not a partisan issue, it's just that we, collectively, are chickensh_t. People are terrified of risk and responsibility, and will do whatever they can to avoid both at all costs. Pelosi herself probably isn't directly responsible for this--she's much too abstracted from that kind of operational detail--but you can bet her handlers avoid risk like the plague.

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Bozoer Rebbe on Aug 14, 2008
I don’t know why Pelosi’s people can’t answer a question like that. Because no one wants to be on the business end of a lawsuit or hearing if something goes wrong. What kind of lawsuit or hearing? What could go wrong? I just wanted to find out if she's traveling on the book tour via commercial airliners or by private jet. It’s not a partisan issue No, it's an issue of Pelosi staff trying to avoid charges of environmental hypocrisy by refusing to reveal whether the Speaker travels commercial or via a Gulfstream.

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Bozoer Rebbe on Aug 14, 2008

Yeah, Pelosi's not risk adverse. That's why she recessed the House rather than risk members of her party voting against her on the energy bill. They may be Democrats but they can also read polls that show an overwhelming number of Americans want to increase drilling and developing our energy resources and they'd like to keep their seats. Pelosi may be Speaker but she doesn't vote in their districts.

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